A longtime Ventura resident recalls when the Golden State Killer murdered two local residents in 1980. The suspected killer was arrested Tuesday.
Ventura

Joseph James DeAngelo, who authorities suspect is the so-called Golden State Killer responsible for at least a dozen murders and 50 rapes in the 1970s and 1980s, is accompanied by Sacramento County Public Defender Diane Howard, right, during his arraignment April 27, 2018, in Sacramento County Superior Court.(Photo: AP PHOTO)

In decades of searching for the Golden State Killer, investigators have been puzzled by one mystery more than many of the others.

Why did the prolific attacker, who raped and killed in dozens of neighborhoods in Sacramento, the East Bay and the Central Valley, suddenly veer so far south, beginning a new spree in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange counties?

The slayings in Ventura County included Ventura residents Lyman and Charlene Smith in 1980.

With the arrest of a suspect in the notorious case, some of the questions posed by countless detectives and amateur sleuths seemed to get answers. Others, notably those relating to the Southern California slayings, so far have not.

Investigators long believed the attacker had lived in the Sacramento area. The suspect, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., spent years in the city’s eastern suburbs, where many of the attacks occurred in the 1970s.

A popular theory held that the attacker also had some connection to Sacramento State University, which appeared to be geographically central to many of the early attacks. DeAngelo had graduated from there.

Authorities have not said whether they believe DeAngelo lived or worked in the region during the killing spree, nor are they sure what might have drawn him to seemingly random locations: A hillside neighborhood in Goleta. The Northwood subdivision of Irvine. A gated community near the ocean in Dana Point.

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Joseph James DeAngelo, who authorities suspect is the so-called Golden State Killer responsible for at least a dozen murders and 50 rapes in the 1970s and 1980s, is arraigned April 27, 2018, in Sacramento County Superior Court.
AP PHOTO

Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in the killing of Lyman and Charlene Smith. The couple was killed March 13, 1980 while they slept in their home on High Point Drive in Ventura.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/SACRAMENTO COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT

At a news conference Wednesday in Sacramento, District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, right, flanked by Sheriff Scott Jones, discusses the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo in connection with a string of violent crimes in the 1970s and 1980s. DeAngelo was taken into custody Tuesday at his suburban Sacramento home on suspicion of committing at least 12 slayings and 45 rapes in California.
AP PHOTO

At a Wednesday news conference in Sacramento, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert discusses the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo in connection with a string of violent crimes in the 1970s and 1980s. Schubert was accompanied by authorities from across the state including Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten.
AP PHOTO

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert at a Sacramento news conference on Wednesday discusses the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo in connection with a string of violent crimes in the 1970s and 1980s. DeAngelo was taken into custody at his suburban Sacramento home on suspicion of committing at least 12 slayings and 45 rapes in California.
AP PHOTO

At a Wednesday news conference in Sacramento, Bruce Harrington discusses the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo on suspicion of a string of violent crimes in the 1970s and 1980s, including the murder of Harrington's brother and sister-in-law.
AP PHOTO

After a news conference Wednesday, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, left, talks to reporters about the arrest Joesph James DeAngelo, seen in photo, on suspicion of committing a string of violent crimes in the 1970s and 1980s. A DNA match led to the arrest of DeAngelo on Tuesday.
AP PHOTO

Bruce Harrington pauses Wednesday as he discusses the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo in connection with a string of violent crimes in the 1970s and 1980s, including the murder of Harrington's brother and sister-in-law.
AP PHOTO

This Wednesday photo shows a copy of the book "I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer" by Michelle McNamara at a Books Inc. bookstore in San Francisco. California authorities say a man they suspect of being a serial killer tied to dozens of slayings and sexual assaults in the 1970s and 1980s has been arrested.
AP PHOTO

Kevin Tapia and his daughter Quinn watch as authorities search in connection with the arrest of a man on suspicion of murder on Wednesday in Citrus Heights. Joesph James DeAngelo was arrested on suspicion of committing a string of violent crimes in the 1970s and 1980s. A DNA match led to the arrest of DeAngelo on Tuesday.
AP PHOTO

On Wednesday, a car is backed out of the garage of a Citrus Heights home searched in connection with the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo on suspicion of a string of violent crimes in the 1970s and 1980s.
AP PHOTO

Jennifer Carole and her father, Lyman Smith, pose for a photo in June 1964 in Santa Paula. Carole's father was one of 12 people murdered by a serial killer. An arrest was made Tuesday in a case spanning decades.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/JENNIFER CAROLE

Public defender Diane Howard, right, speaks with Joseph James DeAngelo, who authorities suspect is the so-called Golden State Killer responsible for at least a dozen murders and 50 rapes in the 1970s and 1980s, as he makes his initial appearance April 27, 2018, in Sacramento County Superior Court.
SACRAMENTO BEE VIA AP

Joseph James DeAngelo, who authorities suspect is the so-called Golden State Killer responsible for at least a dozen murders and 50 rapes in the 1970s and 1980s, is accompanied by Sacramento County Public Defender Diane Howard, right, during his arraignment April 27, 2018, in Sacramento County Superior Court.
AP PHOTO

Larry Pool, who for decades tracked the killer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said DeAngelo does have “friends and relatives” in Southern California who might have drawn him to certain communities. But he said investigators are still not sure whether those ties line up with the areas where the victims lived.

“We’re exploring the relationships between the killer and family and friends. We’re exploring all the relationships in his life, and how those may have connected him to Southern California,” Pool said.

He declined to elaborate because he didn’t “want to taint anything with regard to” the investigation.

“We can probably say more about that farther down the road,” he said.

In a sign that police are trying to build a case, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department this week issued a plea to the public for any information about sighting DeAngelo during the killing spree.

Meanwhile, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is reviewing cold cases to see if any unsolved crimes match the Golden State Killer’s modus operandi. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is doing the same, though officials stressed there are no known homicides associated with the serial killer in L.A.

Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said the lack of an obvious connection to Southern California was “very mysterious.” He said killers usually strike in communities where they have roots, and speculated that the suspect might have had a job that kept him constantly moving, like a salesman or a trucker.

Or maybe he just liked to vacation in the area, Cooley said.

Detectives have said little about the investigation beyond that they received a DNA link several months ago. Cooley said the investigators will almost certainly reconstruct DeAngelo’s life. “Putting him there through some other evidence corroborates the case,” he said.

Authorities arrested DeAngelo, 72, last week, saying they had matched his DNA to crime scene evidence from the attacks that terrorized communities in the 1970s and 1980s. Police believe he raped at least 46 women and killed a young couple in the Sacramento area before heading to Southern California, where he crept into homes at night and brutally killed 10 more.

Before retiring last year, DeAngelo worked for 27 years at the Save Mart Supermarkets distribution center in Roseville, fixing its trucks. He and his wife — an attorney — raised three daughters, one who is an emergency room physician, another a graduate student at the University of California, Davis.

DeAngelo had been fired from the Auburn Police Department in 1979 for shoplifting a can of dog repellent and a hammer, several years after the attacks began in Northern and Central California. It’s unclear what he did after that, and whether his work or personal life sent him to Southern California.

Months after DeAngelo was fired, the sound of gunshots shattered the silence in Goleta, a town just north of Santa Barbara, at 3 a.m. on Dec. 30, 1979.

Sheriff’s investigators said the killer had entered orthopedic surgeon Robert Offerman’s home through a sliding glass door and brought a dog with him. With Offerman that night was Alexandria Manning, a clinical psychologist from Santa Maria.

The killer found them sleeping in bed. He tied their hands behind their backs with twine and killed them.

They were found the next morning by Offerman’s tennis buddy, who had come to pick him up for a match.

Just four months later and 35 miles to the south, the killer struck again in Ventura. He tied up Lyman Smith, 43, and his 33-year-old wife with a drapery cord, securing it with his signature diamond knot. He then raped Charlene Smith for hours before bashing the couples’ heads in with a fireplace log.

They were found the next morning by Lyman Smith’s 12-year-old son.

The next four victims were killed in Orange County.

Keith and Patrice Harrington were bludgeoned to death on Aug. 19, 1980, inside the family’s Dana Point home. There was no sign of forced entry, nothing was taken from their home and a weapon was never found.

Then on Feb. 5, 1981, the killer struck again in Irvine. Manuela Witthuhn, 28, was bludgeoned to death and found the following day by her father when she did not report to work.

The Golden State Killer went quiet after that — until May 4, 1986, when 18-year-old Janelle Cruz was found beaten to death in her family’s Irvine home. She had just started a new job and had wanted to become a psychologist or legal secretary.

Pool said investigators still don’t know why the killings stopped after that — or for sure whether they did.

Those who have explored the Golden State Killer case over the years have struggled to make the connection between the Northern California and Southern California crimes. Author Michelle McNamara, in her book “I’ll be Gone in the Dark,” said she looked through Goleta cemetery records and Irvine high school documents seeking clues.

Paul Holes, the now retired Contra Costa County district attorney who probed the case for years, said the reasons for the shift to Southern California remain far from clear.

Attorneys for the Los Angeles Times and several other news outlets are suing for court records related to the arrest of DeAngelo and the search of his Citrus Heights home.

It’s possible a full answer as to why the Golden State Killer moved south will prove elusive.

“You have to remember, serial killers love to troll for places to kill,” Pool said. “It is a classic evolution of a serial killer.”